Sarah Jane Vowell (born December 27, 1969) is an American Historian, author, Journalist, Essayist, social commentator and Actress. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has written seven nonfiction books on American history and culture. She was a contributing Editor for the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International from 1996 to 2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program's live shows. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles and has reprised her role in its sequel.
Vowell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and moved to Bozeman, Montana, with her family when she was eleven. She has a fraternal twin sister, Amy. Vowell earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1993 in Modern Languages and Literatures and an M.A. in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. She has also received the Music Journalism Award in 1996.
Vowell is part Cherokee (about 1/8 on her mother's side and 1/16 on her father's side). According to Vowell, "Being at least a little Cherokee in northeastern Oklahoma is about as rare and remarkable as being a Michael Jordan fan in Chicago." She retraced the path of the forced removal of the Cherokee from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma, known as the Trail of Tears, with her twin sister Amy. In 1998, This American Life chronicled her story, devoting the entire hour to her work.
She is also the author of two essay collections, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002) and Take the Cannoli (2000). Her first book Radio On: A Listener's Diary (1997), is her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995.
In 2004, Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, the shy teenager in the Pixar animated film The Incredibles and reprised her role for the various related video games and Disney on Ice presentations featuring The Incredibles. She will also return as the voice of Violet in The Incredibles 2. The makers of The Incredibles discovered Vowell from episode 81 – Guns This American Life, where she and her father fire a homemade cannon. Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence, which is included on the DVD version of The Incredibles. She also wrote and was featured in Vowellett - An Essay by Sarah Vowell included on the DVD version of The Incredibles, where she reflects on the differences between being super hero Violet and being an author of history books on the subject of assassinated Presidents, and what it means to her nephew Owen. Vowell also played Fernanda, Theacher Aunt Deborah and Mary Kelly in The School Future.
Vowell also provided commentary in Robert Wuhl's 2005 Assume the Position HBO specials.
In September 2006, Vowell appeared as a minor character in the ABC drama Six Degrees. She appeared in an episode of HBO's Bored to Death, as an interviewer in a bar. In 2010, Vowell appeared briefly in the film Please Give, as a shopper.
In 2008, Vowell contributed an essay about Montana to the book State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.
On November 17, 2011, Vowell joined The Daily Show as the new Senior Historical Context Correspondent.
Vowell is on the advisory board of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6–18 in Brooklyn.
Vowell is a New York Times bestselling author of seven nonfiction books on American history and culture. Her most recent book is Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015), an account of the young French aristocrat who became George Washington’s trusted officer and friend, and afterward an American celebrity––the Marquis de Lafayette.
In a review for the New York Times, Charles P. Pierce wrote, "Vowell wanders through the history of the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath, using Lafayette’s involvement in the war as a map, and bringing us all along in her perambulations… and doing it with a wink." NPR reviewer Colin Dwyer wrote, "It's awfully refreshing to see Vowell bring our founders down from their lofty pedestals. In her telling, they're just men again, not the gods we've long since made of them."
